Instructors & Staff
Instructors
Dedicated professionals with a proven record of artistic success
Ben
Benjamin Cabral is a multidisciplinary artist and educator living and working in San Diego. His work has been shown internationally and throughout the United States. Recent exhibitions include a solo show at Steve Turner, LA and a solo exhibition at Allouche Benias in Athens Greece. Benjamin’s work was selected for a public sculpture commission by the City of San Diego's Arts District. A painter by training, Benjamin’s work is largely autobiographical in nature, creating an honest, yet inherently unreliable, portrait of the artist. Benjamin also creates sculptural work and ceramics, intended to be static performers engaging with viewers. Benjamin previously worked in Chicago as a pre-college educator for art students, specializing in portfolio prep and painting intensives. Benjamin completed his MFA at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago and is the winner of the 2019 Carrie Ellen Tuttle Fellowship
Brad Lynn
Core Illustration & Painting, Comic Book, portfolio
Bradford Lynn is a design-savvy illustrator and passionate multi-disciplinary artist. He graduated with a Bachelor’s of Fine Art with honors in Illustration from Art Center College of Design. He specializes in drawing, painting, branding, and apparel design. For many years, Bradford worked as an illustrative and graphic artist for licenses such as Disney, Marvel, Star Wars, while practicing his studio fine art work, exhibiting in several art galleries.
Dee Amin
Creative Development, Core Illustration & Painting
Mrs. Dee got a B.A. degree and a M.A. degree in Fine Arts. She has a strong foundation in drawing, painting, ceramics, and mosaic designs. She worked for 4 years as a graphic designer and illustrator in the field of children animation. She earned post-graduate art classes in the USA in ceramic and clay hand-building art where a few of her art pieces were chosen for demonstration at several art galleries. For the past eight years, Mrs. Dee worked as an art instructor, enjoying teaching students several art techniques and media including drawing, water coloring, acrylic painting, clay hand-building, mosaics, and glass fusion.
Farinaz Toghyani
Core Illustration & Painting, Creative Development
Farinaz is an illustrator for kids’ books, a caricaturist, abstract painter, portrait painter, and cartoonist and creativity is very important to her. She got a Bachelor of Arts from the University of applied science of Zarinshahr (Iran) She also has an associate degree; in visual arts-painting from Somayeh Technical and vocational college of Najaf Abad (Iran). And she has a diploma in painting too. It’s been nearly 10 years that Farinaz is teaching art to children in many schools. She was a volunteer at a charity for Afghan children. Farinaz is working with acrylic for realistic painting and markers for cartoons. She had expiations in arts and designed and illustrated children's story books which have been published.
Jackson Xu
Core Illustration & Painting, Portfolio
Jackson graduated from MINZU UNIVERSITY OF CHINA（中央民族大学）, focused in Oil Painting. He worked as a Researcher of art at the Chinese National Academy of Calligraphy and Painting for years. He is a very active and productive oil painting artist and recently relocated to San Diego. He has numerous solo art exhibitions and won many awards. He has taught fine art for 8 plus years in China.
“在我的教学理念中，我一直想教我的学生要做大树的“根”，就是基本功一定要扎实，这样才能事半功倍。有很多家长这样想，我的孩子学习画画不一定要成为画家，也不一定要从事相关行业，但是我觉得学习画画的过程特别特别锻炼人，你的毅力，自信，专注力，观察力，创造力，感受力，审美能力，思维能力，概括能力。这才是对一个人的成长真正有价值的地方，在这个过程中你其实在不知不觉的塑造自己。
我希望孩子们从小树立正确的绘画方法和思维方式，能够得到高质量，高效率的教学内容，少走弯路，这是我所期望的。”
Jae Lim
Creative Development, Core Illustration & Painting, portfolio
Jae Lim holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Studio Area from the University of California, Los Angeles. He received a BFA in Studio from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a certificate in Political Science from the Seoul National University ISI Program. Lim was the Hyundai Motor Art-Uni-On Fellowship artist. He received the Hammer Museum’s Kay Nielsen Memorial Drawing Award and exhibited in Norway; South Korea; the USA; and Finland.
Lulu Yueming McNaught
Creative Development, Chinese Painting, portfolio
Lulu Yueming McNaught is a professional illustrator with two master’s degrees, one in Chinese Painting from the most prestigious art school in China, Central Academy of Fine Arts (中央美术学院), and another in Illustration from Fashion Institute of Technology. With over 20 years of painting experience, Lulu’s clients include magazines, restaurants, bars, tea shops, fashion studios, and education programs.
Nenad Zaric
Core Illustration & Painting, Portfolio
Nenad Zarić is a graduate of the University of Arts in Belgrade (Faculty of Fine Arts), Department of Painting. He is known for his expressive large-scale canvases and has exhibited his work in numerous group and solo exhibitions across Serbia, ashington, DC, and California.
Sara
Mehraz
Core Illustration & Painting
Sara O. Mehraz got a B.A degree in Fine Arts from Art and Architectural Azad University, and completed several classes in digital design (Mira Costa Collage). She has been teaching in the area of fine arts & painting for over 20 years over a series of different levels. She has also taught art to students who wanted to enter the college for a few years. She has displayed several pieces of her artwork at different galleries and exhibitions.
Shelly Zhao
Shelly Zhao is a visual artist and educator based in San Diego, CA, with a multidisciplinary background in studio art, film, photography, and digital media. Her creative work spans both traditional and contemporary practices, including illustration, and reflects a thoughtful integration of fine art and storytelling.
She has taught at several art studios, guiding students in both traditional and digital media, and has also worked as a book illustrator and guest artist. Her teaching approach is rooted in creating an engaging, supportive environment where students of all levels feel empowered to explore and grow artistically.
Shelly holds a BA in Visual Arts–Media with a minor in Japanese Studies from the University of California, San Diego, and an AA in Studio Art from San Diego Mesa College.
Sue Dawe
Core Illustration & Painting, portfolio
Sue Dawe has been a commercial illustrator for 32 years. Her work has been published world-wide on posters and prints, greeting cards, back-to-school products, fabric arts, calendars, porcelain collectible plates, puzzles and games.
Regan Russell
Core Illustration & Painting
Regan Russell is a multi-disciplinary artist from San Diego, CA. He studied and received a BA in studio art at the University of California San Diego. He began his art career creating realistic pencil drawings and digital portrait paintings. His artwork has evolved to intertwine traditional mediums and bright palettes with woodworking, murals, and design. Regan is influenced pop culture, comics, music, and maintaining that we are what we put into the universe
Jill White
Creative Development, Crafting, Art Camp
Jillian White graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in studio art, her main focus of study being metal-smithing and jewelry making. She has been with US Arts since 2015, teaching and substituting in our creative development (4-8) classes, as well as managing our art camp and teaching crafting classes. With a background in various artistic traditions, she loves to introduce students to new and different forms of art and craft.
Jenny Zhao
Founder
Jenny found US Arts San Diego in 2002 and has been managing the studio ever since. Watching students from as young as four years old display their unique creativity and showing their pride in creating a piece of artwork is her most rewarding experience. Jenny came to the US in 1987 and has a masters degree in Physics from Columbia University. Her personal interest is in child education and her daughters were two of the first seven students who took classes when the school began.